Reuters - Arab foreign ministers on Sunday dismissed Western explanations for cutting aid to the Palestinian Authority but offered no extra money to compensate for a budget shortfall when Hamas Islamists take office.

AP - Shawn Marion scored 21 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help Phoenix beat Denver 107-96 on Saturday night in a showdown of division leaders and possible playoff preview.

AP - Inside Estonia's presidential palace in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a lanky, white-haired man could occasionally be seen bent over a broken coffee maker or light fixture, screwdriver in hand, dutifully making repairs.

AP - Arab governments should do more for Iraq, including offering debt relief and reopening diplomatic missions in Baghdad, interim Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in Khartoum on Saturday.

AFP - Arab foreign ministers started a two-day preparatory meeting ahead of Tuesday's annual summit of Arab leaders in the Sudanese capital.

AP - Connecticut was as careless as a top seed can be — and got away with it.

AFP - A Chinese gangmaster was found guilty of the manslaughter of 21 Chinese shellfish pickers who drowned in a treacherous British bay two years ago.

AP - A Palestinian investment fund that controls hundreds of millions of dollars will remain under the control of President Mahmoud Abbas, a senior aide said Friday — a move that would deny Hamas militants access to the money after they take control of parliament next week.

Reuters - A merger between Alcatel and Lucent could make operational sense, but analysts see key obstacles over whether the U.S. telecoms equipment maker would agree to be led by its larger French rival.

AP - A jury convicted a Chinese man on 21 counts of manslaughter Friday for the deaths of Chinese cockle pickers caught in a swiftly rising tide in northwestern England two years ago.

AFP - Pakistani troops and helicopter gunships killed up to 20 militants near the Afghan border, officials said, hours after President Pervez Musharraf warned foreign rebels to leave the area or die.

Reuters - U.S. tech stocks looked set to open higher on Friday, helped by news that Web search company Google Inc. will be added to the S&P 500 index and a stronger-than-expected profit by Palm Inc. , maker of the Treo cell phone.

Reuters - No one does preoccupied better than Bill Nighy -- best known Stateside for roles in such films as "Love Actually" and "The Constant Gardener" -- and playing to his strength as a serenely detached public relations guru just about saves "Gideon's Daughter," a ponderous story of family alienation.

Reuters - French telecoms equipment provider Alcatel is in talks with its smaller U.S. rival Lucent Technologies to create a combine with sales of 21 billion euros ($25.33 billion), the companies said late on Thursday.

Reuters - U.S. telecom equipment maker Lucent Technologies and its French rival Alcatel confirmed late on Thursday they are discussing a potential merger of equals.

AP - Lucent Technologies Inc. and French telecom equipment maker Alcatel SA are discussing a merger in what could be the start of consolidation among the companies that help power telephone and Internet networks.

Reuters - Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. said on Thursday it has a new design contract with Sony Corp. (6758.T) that will pay more than it earned for creating the graphics processor for the upcoming PlayStation 3 video game console.

Reuters - Palm Inc., the maker of Treo cell phones, on Thursday said quarterly profit rose as it doubled sales of its phones and introduced a new device based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp. named Steve Sinofsky to oversee its core Windows business on Thursday, choosing someone from the company's Office business software unit to lead an operating system division beset by delays and missed deadlines.

AP - Microsoft Corp. announced a broad reorganization Thursday of the unit that produces its flagship Windows operating system, two days after the company said the new consumer version of Windows would not be ready for the holiday season as planned.